Tibby Smith — England's Inter-War Wicketkeeper

Wicket-keeping in the 1920s was undergoing a transition from the standing-up tradition of the Edwardian era to the standing-back demands of the new pace bowling. Tibby Smith's Warwickshire experience straddled both styles.

Tibby Smith — full name Ernest James Smith but known throughout cricket as 'Tibby' or 'Tiger' — had taken over from Dick Lilley as England's wicketkeeper in 1911 and toured Australia in 1911-12. Although he played his last Test in 1914 (the war and Herbert Strudwick's emergence cost him post-war international cricket), his county career with Warwickshire continued through the 1920s with little decline.

In 1922 he made 209 not out against Lancashire at Edgbaston — the highest score by an English wicketkeeper in first-class cricket at the time. He kept regularly to the leg-spin of Charles Howell and the medium pace of Harry Howell, and his standing-up wicketkeeping to medium-pace bowling was widely studied; he wrote a book on the technique in 1929. He remained Warwickshire's first-choice wicket-keeper through to 1930.

After retirement he became a coach. He coached Don Bradman during the 1948 Invincibles tour of England (Bradman often returned to Edgbaston between Tests for a quiet net with Smith) and worked with the Warwickshire colts through the 1950s. His longevity in the game — Test debut 1911, last coaching session 1957 — covered nearly fifty years.

“If you cannot stand up to the medium pacers, you cannot keep wicket. Standing back is for the fast men only.”

Smith retired from playing in 1930. He coached at Warwickshire until 1957. He died in 1979 at the age of 93 — the longest-lived English wicket-keeper of his era.